“It’s not personal.”
How many times have you heard this before knowing full well that everything in life, no matter how hard you spin it, is personal? We are all, quite literally, persons after all (though at times it may be questionable). And yet, for the sake of our own sanity and the need to work with others, we accept it, compartmentalize, and move on. But what if there was another way?
Speaking to IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking for the latest episode of “What No One Tells You,” TV creator Mara Brock Akil offered valuable insight on how to manage what may seem like rejection, but could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It’s all about perspective, so keep reading to learn how to shape your own.
‘Don’t Feel Rejected, Feel Redirected’
“In finding your voice, sometimes it’s met with resistance,” said Akil, “and then you realize, ‘Oh, well that’s me.’”
What Akil describes here is a feeling many creatives have gone through, especially just starting out. It’s the moment you realize that the voice you’ve worked so carefully to hone only matters so much in a certain context. Those who are able to adjust and serve someone else’s vision might get to re-embrace their own vision one day, but those who resist tend to struggle. While working as a writer and producer on “Moesha” in the 1990s, Akil learned this from showrunner Ralph Farquhar and others when she found out that her pitches weren’t always geared toward the tone of the series.
“They were like, ‘Mara we’re not doing that show, you can stop pitching that story.’ And I kept going,” Akil said. Instead of reprimand her, Farquhar gave her some advice to redirect her energy. “He was like, ‘Okay Mara, how about you save that for your pilot?’ And I was like ‘You know what, I am gonna save it for my pilot!’”
Some of those ideas Akil “felt passionate about” ultimately found their way into her breakout sitcom “Girlfriends,” which aired on UPN from 2000 to 2008.
“I actually did take my mentor’s advice,” Akil told IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking. “I saved all of the stuff that I thought was amazing for my pilot. That’s what I hope people do: Don’t feel rejected. Feel redirected.”
Watch a clip from Akil’s “What No One Tells You” episode below.
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